England considering Test captain and renowned batsman, Joe Root, dispensable to their needs in T20I cricket came as a huge "surprise" for Australia's star willow holder Steve Smith, who said his English counterpart is a "terrific" player across formats. 

Root, just like the Pakistan T20Is, hasn't been picked for the three-match series against the arch-rivals, starting September 4, with Ed Smith saying that the batsman isn't at the moment part of England's best possible XI on the park in the shortest format. 

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And even though the chief selector did add they would love to have Root making his strongest claim for reselection considering the next year's World Cup in India will require his technical expertise to form a nice balance with others' explosiveness, a dark cloud now looms over the batsman's T20I future. 

"It's a surprise. Joe is a terrific player across all formats of the game," Smith told Britain's Press Association news agency on Tuesday (September 1).

"I guess England are opting for all-out power and are continuing to go that way. Everyone's got different game-plans and different ways to go. If everyone played the same it would be a pretty boring game."

The role of an anchor in a T20 line-up is often debated. It is questioned time and again whether a man playing around power-hitters is inessential to the team's needs with the format only seeing higher scoring rates. 

Smith, though, unlike Root, knows that his strengths are valued in the Australian set-up. 

"I know if I'm batting with someone like Glenn Maxwell or Aaron Finch my role is to get them on strike and let them smack it," he said.

"For me, it's about hitting gaps, sort of playing an anchor role and fixing things up if the big boys don't get out there and smack it."

In another matter, Smith said he isn't eyeing the Australian captaincy job anytime soon and backed the Test skipper Tim Paine and white-ball leader Aaron Finch to continue their good work. 

Smith is eligible to be reappointed captain after going through a two-year leadership ban imposed on him following involvement in the ball-tampering saga. 

"The guys we've got are doing great jobs across the formats," he said. "I'm pretty chilled at the moment doing what I'm doing, scoring as many runs as I can, fielding as well as I can and giving bits of advice here and there. I'm just enjoying it so there's no real thought from me (on captaincy)."